Host Westminster ended up sharing the Dogwood Classic title with Walton after the two state powerhouses battled to a 13-13 tie in the championship game of the prestigious girls’ lacrosse tournament April 6.

Since Georgia High School Association rules don’t allow overtime games between teams in different classifications, Westminster — the top-ranked team in Class AAAAA-A — and Walton — the No. 3 squad in AAAAAA — were declared co-champions.

“It was a great weekend overall,” Westminster coach Jay Watts said. “We played three good teams and I think we got better each game, which is ideally what we would want to do.”

The annual eight-team tournament featured some of the top teams in the state as well as squads from Tennessee and Ohio.

Coming off of a 16-10 semifinal win over Kennesaw Mountain earlier in the day, Westminster led 9-4 at halftime of the title game before Walton came back to outscore the Wildcats 9-4 in the second half to secure the draw.

“I think the girls really stepped up in that second game on Saturday against Walton,” Watts said. “We had a great first half and then we kind of ran out of steam at the end of the game to hold on.

“We started making some mistakes that were related to fatigue toward the end of the game and had some turnovers that they capitalized on and that was the difference between a win and a tie.”

Caroline Heys, who was co-MVP of the tournament with Walton’s Erin McBride, had six goals and one assist to lead the scoring in the finals for Westminster.

Heys, McBride and Westminster’s Anna Silverstein were selected to the All-Tournament team, along with Woodward’s Drew Jackson and Annie Bennett of Holy Innocents’.

The Wildcats defeated Girls’ Prep School (Tenn.) 17-10 in the first round April 5.

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